Nancy Pelosi Protected: Democrats Block Investigation Probe
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 21, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Ah, those Democrats in Congress… they sure do protect their own fiercely, don’t they?
For now, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been circled by the Dems’ pioneer wagons and won’t be subjected to a probe concerning her wild accusations over the past few weeks about the CIA’s disclosure, or lack thereof, concerning interrogation techniques used on three captured terrorists at Gitmo. Did Nancy know? Did Nancy lie? Did Nancy forget? Did the CIA lie?
Surely I’m not the only one sick of this back-and-forth “cover your tush” garbage in Congress… it’s like a tiny painful splinter lodged in your thumb that just won’t go away and can’t be extracted without a lot of blood being shed.
There was political theater, drama, but no surprise ending on Thursday on a topic involving spies, torture and truth in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives.
Republicans again ripped into Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing the CIA of misleading Congress — and her fellow Democrats quickly blocked their bid for a bipartisan probe into her truthfulness. The vote was 252-172.
“The Republicans … have been focused on the politics of personal destruction,” House Democratic leader House Steny Hoyer said afterward.
Hoyer also accused Republicans of trying to divert attention from the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners as well as Democratic efforts this year to revamp healthcare and move the nation toward energy independence.
Democrats rushed to Pelosi’s defense earlier this week, saying they believe her statement that the CIA did not inform her at a September 2002 briefing that it had used waterboarding, simulated drowning widely denounced as torture, during interrogations of suspected enemy combatants.
Prior to the House vote, Republican leader John Boehner, who has pounded Pelosi for saying the CIA had misled Congress, said, “Getting to the bottom of this quickly is important.”
“The speaker has made a very serious charge,” Boehner told reporters. He added it has had “a chilling effect on our U.S. intelligence officials around the world.”
Hoyer fired back by citing what he said were remarks by a number of Republicans, including Boehner, in recent years critical of the CIA. On Wednesday, Senator Arlen Specter, a former Republican who recently switched to Democrat, defended Pelosi — known as one of the most liberal Democrats in the House and a favorite target of conservative critics.
“The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say ‘candid;’ that’s too mild – to honesty,” Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told members of the American Law Institute.
Poll numbers for Pelosi are posted all over the Internet; I pulled this text from Scared Monkeys (love that blog’s name!):
Nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — disapprove of how the California Democrat she is handling her job as Speaker of the House in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday, while 39 percent approve of her performance.
That rating makes her less popular than other members of her party — congressional Democrats drew a 51 percent approval rating in last month’s CNN/ORC survey — and roughly in line with the congressional GOP, which drew positive ratings in April from just 39 percent of those polled.
Update, July 27, 2009: Approval numbers keep dropping for San Francisco’s Nancy “Liar of the House” Pelosi. From Michelle Malkin: Queen Nancy scoffs at her plummeting poll numbers
Additional reading:
Michelle Malkin: Video flashback: When Nancy Pelosi loved shouters and disrupters and The CYA Congress and Dance, Nancy, Dance
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Big day for the democratic congress – Pelosi probe blocked AND they vote down a motion to ban funding for John Murtha airport!
Hot Air: Disgrace: Pelosi stands by smear of CIA
DaTechguy’s Blog: A Bad day for the White House
Nice Deb: The Nancy Pelosi Waterboarding Doll
Jim Blazsik: Camelot devotees make very poor investigative reporters
CNN Politics, politicalticker: GOP’s push for Pelosi investigation fails in the House
Fausta’s Blog: “RNC’s below-the-belt shot at Nancy Pelosi”
About the author
Just heard on the radio that she told America to go pound sand.
She’s not going to answer the question.
These people need to be removed ASAP.
“Politics of destruction”? Hoyer certainly KNOWS those words well, doesn’t he. She can’t hide for ever … the truth WILL come out!